September 3, 2004

The elaborate tiles are omnipresent in Southern Spain and Portugal: you find them as decorative elements on houes, but also as street sign, on park benches, in churches and many other likely and unlikely places.
The plaza des España in Seville is full of them and even the “Torre del Oro” (Golden Tower) gets its colour from gilded azulejos!
Usually, azulejos are mostly blue, as the name seems to indicate (azul=blue), but just about all other colours may be present as well.

As to the origin of the name azulejo: although the connection to the Spanish word for “blue” seems obvious, experts come up with a different etymology - from Arabic “Al Zulai” meaning brick.
Now, these tiles are neither completely blue nor bricks, but in any case truly photogenic!